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Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. Novella out today – hurray hurray hurray! My novella, Loving My Lady has been republished by eXcessica today. It’s the first long lesbian Regency story I wrote, and although it’s a few years old now, I’m still rather fond of it.
  2. I also signed a contract this week for an anthology of three stories to come out later this year with Nine Star Press, so look out for an interesting selection of gay erotica at some point. Lots of edits to do first, but I’m really pleased to be working with the company – they seem both friendly and very professional, which is an excellent combination.
  3. This week was lovely because I had a friend staying until Wednesday. I haven’t been as well as I might have been, so we didn’t exactly do a lot, but much fun was had nonetheless, and it was really excellent to spend time with her.
  4. I had a parent consultation with Splendid Son’s teacher this week, in which I was informed that he’s doing extremely well at school and on target to exceed expectations in his main subjects, which is very pleasing. Best of all, though, the teacher was very pleased about his love of learning, which I hope he will keep throughout his life.
  5. After a massive upset with my editing and computers last week (one broke, and the temporary replacements failed to allow me to edit my novel), I am back on track with a new-to-me laptop and am two thirds of the way through the first round of edits on The Sisterhood, which is excellent. (The fact that I am two thirds of the way through is excellent; I don’t speak for the quality of the novel itself, though I don’t think it’s too bad, actually.) And look – it’s being trailed on Amazon already 🙂
  6. I’ve finished the first draft of another of the novellas which have been occupying my mind since January. That’s two now completed, and I have quite a lot more writing on the subject of the characters as well. It’s a case of working out how to put it together which is occupying my mind at the moment – or those bits of my mind not taken up with everything else I’m doing, anyway!

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. My sister, niece and nephew were down staying locally for a few days at the beginning of the week. It was extremely splendid to see them!
  2. I have got the first draft of my latest article for Jane Austen’s Regency World finished this week – it’s about men who live off other people’s money…
  3. Lovely Partner, who has been feeling unwell ever since we came back from Berlin at the beginning of the month, is finally feeling a bit better, which is good news.
  4. My (lesbian regency) novella, Loving My Lady, is due to be published by eXcessica next month, and the cover design has just been completed! It’s gorgeous – look! (I’m just checking the cover artist’s details and will link to her when possible.)cover2
  5. I’ve  finished the first draft of one of the novellas I’ve been writing over the last month or so. I’m having second thoughts about one of them – I’d envisaged a set of three – but it’s good to have one finished.
  6.  Splendid Son and I went to see a friend of mine with two small boys. We had a great time, and he was ever so good with the little ones!

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. Lovely Partner and I are going to Berlin at the end of next week, which has been taking up a lot of our minds this week. We now have money and tickets sorted, and are planning all sorts of places to go (plus meeting up with old friends, which should be excellent!), which is really exciting! (No SSS next week, by the way, since I will hopefully be Far Too Busy Having Fun!)

2. I submitted another couple of stories this week, which felt terribly brave. But I prefer having lots of things out so that when the rejections start rolling in, there’s still hope that something else may get accepted 🙂

3. I’ve also been in contact with someone about taking part in a festival later in the year. Nothing more to tell about it at the moment, and it may yet come to nothing, but it’s quite an exciting thought.

4. The story I started last week seems to have managed to get itself to 20,000 words. I’m not quite sure how it’s managed that (I anticipated it finishing at about 15,000; but there’s still at least another 1000 and possibly more to go) but it seems to be going well in its own sweet way, so I’ll just go with it.

5. Splendid Son and I are going to the football this afternoon, which is always an interesting experience. Sadly, our team almost never wins and is one of the worst in the league; however, there is something special about being there and feeling like you’re involved. We sit very close to the home dugout, too, which gives us an interesting perspective on things.

6. Ooh, I went clothes shopping this week after my best friend kindly gave me money and told me to go and buy something that fitted me for my birthday. I now actually own a pair of trousers which fit, and a very pleasing blue jumper which my cats will try and nibble holes in at the first available moment.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

 

After a few weeks off over Christmas, I’m finally getting my arse back in gear and getting back to writing my Satisfied Saturday Sixes 🙂 So here goes.

  1. I had a nice birthday on Wednesday: lots of very kind people wishing me well, and my health problems (which have been multitudinal this year, sadly) were obliging enough to give me a couple of days off from feeling ten different types of dreadful. So that was splendid.
  2. I heard back from the editor of Jane Austen’s Regency World that my article on Black Georgians is okay, which is relieving. I didn’t want to tread on anyone’s sensibilities, and I’m aware that I’m writing for an international audience where different countries have different appropriate terminology, so it was all a bit terrifying. It’ll be out in the March/April edition, so please look out for it!
  3. I managed to submit a couple of stories this week. This is slightly disconcerting because it’s been quite a while since I’ve been submitting things en spec rather than writing for specific commissions. So it’s very much a case of wait and see, and obviously the thing about being a writer is that you do have to put a brave face on rejections, so I may very well be doing that quite a lot in the foreseeable future. But it’s fun to be writing new things, and writing things which I’ve written just because that’s what I fancied writing at the time. (It’s all sex at the moment. No idea why, but it is. I’m going with it.)
  4. Talking of which, the muse is still buzzing along happily so I am still writing new things. Any good? Probably not, but that’s another matter.
  5. I went out for a meal with my parents on Thursday, which is always an enjoyable experience. I’m having a few problems eating enough at the moment (not a usual issue for me!) but nice food is still nice food.
  6. Splendid Son was invited out for a birthday treat with a friend yesterday, which was very nice for him and also very good timing for me as I had a migraine and it meant that I could spend all day in bed without needing to be anywhere at any time, which was a great (and much needed) relief. (Yes, I am scraping the barrel a bit at the moment to find any non-illness related information. Sorry.)

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1.  I had a really lovely time with my friends last weekend. It was so lovely to see them.

2. I’ve got the first draft of my article on Black Georgians written. (To put this into context, I don’t mean the country close to Russia, nor the State of America, but the Georgian Period in Britain.) It stems out of a lot of the research I did for The Sisterhood, so it was good to put the newly found knowledge to good use!

3. Splendid Son passed his tenor horn exam (Grade 2), which is really pleasing. He’s been practising hard, so it’s good to know it paid off.

4. I’m still managing to sell knitting, though I’m behind on a commissioned piece at the moment. (Christmas preparation has gone into mass production and I’m somewhat stressed about it all.)

5. Exciting Christmassy parcels and cards are arriving, which is lovely! I feel very popular (and also very guilty for failing at cards this year. I failed at cards last year, too…).

6. I went out in the evening with Lovely Partner on Thursday! This was the first time I’ve been out with him and not Splendid Son from home (we went out together when we were on holiday in Bath for a couple of days) for over a year, I think! We met some of the excellent people he fences with (swords, not gardens) and I managed sociability without making too much of an idiot of myself, I think. (Social gatherings are not my best thing.)

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1. Sowley, the shop which sells my scarves in Canterbury, turns out to have sold some more of them. I originally gave them four scarves, all of which have sold, and I’ve now given them three more. But it’s delightful that they’re selling – I’m so pleased!

2. On top of that, I’ve sold all the other scarves I had on offer at Friday Yarns – and am in the middle of making arm warmers/fingerless mittens as a commission. (I have also finished a commissioned rug and now just need to find brown paper or large postage bags so that I can post it.)

3. I’m still writing a lot. I am really enjoying myself with the writing at the moment: it is lovely. I think this is the first time I’ve been whole-heartedly enjoying it for a while. I needed to have deadlines and to get things submitted on time, but I am definitely liking the freedom to write whatever I feel like at the moment. And I am finally getting round to writing some things which may actually be publishable. I’ve got a half-written story about three men which I’m currently quite pleased with.

4. Splendid Son had his horn exam on Wednesday (grade 2). He was worried in advance, which isn’t like him but he came out of it saying that he thought he’d passed, so that’s good. Also, it means that I don’t have to hassle him to do horn practice every day! I promised him a week off after he’d done the exam 🙂

5. Ooh, I ordered some things from Breila Cards for Christmas, and they arrived this week. She is so talented!

6. I have realised that my body is really not working at the moment (not good) and scaled back a bit to cope with it (good) AND am nonetheless feeling quite cheerful (very good)!

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

 

1. My sister was down for a couple of days at the beginning of the week. It was excellent to meet up and have a chat 🙂

2. I seem to have made what is to me a surprising discovery: if I take painkillers to deal with my pain issues, it greatly improves my mood as well. Other people may not find this as surprising as I do – Splendid Son clearly didn’t, as we had the following exchange (apologies to those who have read it elsewhere, but it bears repeating!):
Me: “I’m not in much pain and I’m feeling much happier than I have been lately!”

Splendid Son: “That’s like saying ‘I’ve put on trousers and now I don’t feel so naked.'”

Well, obvious or not, it’s extremely pleasing!

3. I’m still writing lots. Including some things which may well be publishable. And I’m doing lots of research into what to write for which markets next, which is quite fun.

4. I’m feeling well enough to go to the football today (Charlton Athletic), which is pleasing as I feared I might not be. I’m going with my father rather than son today – Splendid Son, Lovely Partner, my mother and a couple of SS’s friends are all going to the pantomime (all together now: “OH NO THEY AREN’T!”) so everyone will be happy. Dad and I have never liked panto very much, but we do like football 🙂

5.  The US’s Thanksgiving has meant that my Facebook has been overwhelmed with people writing about things they’re grateful for. It has been a lovely explosion of good things!

6. Splendid Son has a horn exam next Wednesday. I have promised him a week off practising afterwards. Little does he know that I have promised MYSELF a week off nagging him to practise 🙂 He’s been very good, but I can hardly wait!

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

Considering the attacks in Paris (which is closer to my home than many places in England, and any place in Scotland), it seems slightly insensitive to post an SSS. But in the theory that at bad times, recognising the good is important, I’m going ahead.

  1. After a few days of feeling “I never want to write again” after submitting The Sisterhood, my writing mojo is back. I’m avoiding anything long still, but poetry and flash fiction are singing through my brain, and I’ve been reminded that I do indeed write for the love of it. It got a bit lost in the epic battle to turn in a decently edited novel on time, so it’s nice to be feeling it again.

2. Lovely Partner and I are planning a couple of nights in Berlin sometime next year. I won accommodation there, so it’s just a case of getting there and finding food. It’s giving us something nice to look forward to – I’m not a winter person, so it’s good to be planning great things.

3. I had a medical appointment on Wednesday which went much better than anticipated, so that was a relief.

4. I am looking at getting business cards made up for Friday Yarns, which feels like a terribly grown up thing to be doing.

5. Next weekend, I have organised to go up and visit one of my sisters. Then, when I get back, my other sister will be staying locally, so I will get to spend time with her as well. This is very pleasing.

6. I efficiently managed to do much cooking of food earlier in the week, which is all portioned up in the freezer, so that is rather excellent.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

Well, this has been another trying week. I do have non-trying weeks, I promise! Nevertheless, there are always good things to find.

  1. I finished and submitted The Sisterhood! Which is very exciting, and a big relief.

2. I had lost a book I’ve been wanting to read for weeks, and I finally found it yesterday. This is probably more pleasing than it has any right to be.

3. Unfortunately, due to a lot of terrible things, one after another, I had to pull out of a weekend I’d promised to attend. This, obviously, is not at all good – but the organisers were wonderfully supportive and understanding about it and that makes such a big difference! Much gratefulness to them for that.

4. Both of my cats are being really cuddly at the moment. It’s probably because it’s colder and I’m nice and warm, but whatever the reason it’s much appreciated. (I like to think that it’s because they know I need cuddles, but you know. I’m a soppy cat owner. It’s probably the heat thing.)

5. My humans are also being wonderful. I have a great support system, you know? Sometimes life is pretty grim, and that’s just how it comes. But having the right people around me means that I know things will get better again. From the people I live with to the people I know only through Facebook – you’re all brilliant.

6. I was interviewed for ‘Kent Life’ magazine a while back. It turns out that the text (not, thankfully, the picture!) is now online.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. My sister and nephew have been down for most of the past week, which has been splendid!

2. I am trying to re-learn about twitter, and will be trying to tweet from both my @penelopefriday account and my newly set up @friday_yarns account, on writing (the former), knitting (the latter) and random topics (either or both)!

3. I’ve got a fair bit of The Sisterhood edited. It’s almost certainly going to hit 90k before I’m happy with it (I added 2000 words today, sort of accidentally), and when I’ve done this first round of edits, there will be another round to do (so I’d better hurry up, eh?) but it’s improving all the time, I think.

4. My Zula-cat, who has been quite skittish lately, has been a little bit more friendly over the past few days. (Of course, I write that at a moment where she appears to have vanished, but oh well.) Possibly it took her this long to forgive me for going away in late August, but it’s nice to have her back being purry and friendly.

5. My sister brought down some of the clothes that in her slimness she has grown out of. Which means new clothes for me!!! Very pleasing, though I wouldn’t mind being slimmer myself, either!

6. Ooh, I completed a Sekrit Project a couple of days ago. It’s a present for someone, so I can’t say any more, but I’m really pleased at how it turned out.